Tesla Model X Fatal Accident

[doublespaces]

This is what you'd call total destruction of a vehicle. I'm not sure if this is because of the impact with the center rail, the collision from the other cars, the fire or even the process of getting the driver out, if there was one. Sometimes they cut the car up in order to get access to the occupants, but this car is completely messed up so bad that I don't think that was even necessary. I'd be curious if the driver was even in a seat at the time they found him.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/977286282991755264

The wreckage was severe enough the logs have not yet been retrieved. I'm curious if there is simple a problem accessing the storage device or if that device was completely destroyed and is inaccessible.

Tesla states that cars routinely make this passage and have not heard of a single accident, so I'd be interested to know what really went on here. They have issued a statement here:

https://www.tesla.com/blog/what-we-know-about-last-weeks-accident

 

[doublespaces]

Tesla has updated the situation, Autopilot was engaged:

In the moments before the collision, which occurred at 9:27 a.m. on Friday, March 23rd, Autopilot was engaged with the adaptive cruise control follow-distance set to minimum. The driver had received several visual and one audible hands-on warning earlier in the drive and the driver’s hands were not detected on the wheel for six seconds prior to the collision. The driver had about five seconds and 150 meters of unobstructed view of the concrete divider with the crushed crash attenuator, but the vehicle logs show that no action was taken.
The reason this crash was so severe is because the crash attenuator, a highway safety barrier which is designed to reduce the impact into a concrete lane divider, had been crushed in a prior accident without being replaced. We have never seen this level of damage to a Model X in any other crash.
Over a year ago, our first iteration of Autopilot was found by the U.S. government to reduce crash rates by as much as 40%. Internal data confirms that recent updates to Autopilot have improved system reliability.

https://www.tesla.com/en_EU/blog/update-last-week’s-accident